But law enforcement officers are expected to live according to a set of standards. Depending on where you live, this could mean lots and it could mean nothing. But if you are late on a car payment, you must not be trustworthy. If you are not trustworthy, then you can't be trusted to be a cop.
That seems extreme, but it happens. Policies are written to protect the department and not the officer, which is why there of unions. But for those departments that don't have unions, you have an employee making more than minimum wage, but not really enough that either you don't have to work a second job or your significant other doesn't have to work, who has no recourse against the departments politics.
So if you post something about your brother being gay (my brother is not, in case he reads this! ;-), or your ex-wife and her intimate misdeeds with other men, you may lose your job. We take for granted the ability to talk to people anonymously on the web, or to be able to connect with long lost buddies, but being online is almost like being in church. Our words are sometimes so closely monitored that even talking online isn't worth it.
I've written cautions to LE officers before to be careful what they post as it could be career enders.
Where do we set that line for expecting perfection from humans, simply because they carry a piece of copper on their shirt?
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